


Boys on fire

by melodrame



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, M/M, Murder Mystery, Slasher, Tags Are Hard, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27143929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodrame/pseuds/melodrame
Summary: Donghyuck has been missing for a couple of days now, but no one is truly looking for him. Is there a chance someone has found him already?
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun & Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22
Collections: Challenge #2 — tricks; treats; and terrors





	Boys on fire

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!!! This is the first time I get to join a fic fest so I'm a little worried! I hope I did okay, but I guess you'll be the ones judging that. Enjoy!

Renjun turns his cellphone on, already knowing what to expect when he notices thirteen missed calls on the device’s touchscreen. He also knows that Donghyuck has never had good luck with anything at all. By then, the forty-eight hours have already passed and the police hasn’t showed no indication of tracking a suspect. There are no clues. Neither traces nor some miserable farewell letter either. Renjun wonders what he has done wrong, but he can’t seem to find an answer to that question.

He takes the phone in his hands and holds the device to his ear, immediately hearing Donghyuck’s voice mail and cutting it off. What’s the urge to leave a message if he’s not going to reply to it? Hyuckie was the worst when it came to replying to messages and that won’t change now. But still, Renjun tries his best. How many text messages and missed calls had he left already? Renjun loses count at this point. He also went to his apartment. He vaguely remembers shuffling his feet on the asphalt still wet from the rain and opening the door with that key he hides under the welcome rug. He remembers moving through the kitchen, rolling his eyes as he realizes that the empty pizza boxes are still there, along with cans of beer still half-drunk. Books scattered on the floor of his room and notes with scribbles that were crumpled and inside the small trash that Donghyuck keeps in one of the corners of that overlooked balcony that he hardly uses. Renjun always wondered why he doesn’t go out onto the balcony. Donghyuck used to say that he doesn’t want the neighbors to see him so Renjun doesn’t insist on the matter either. He just shrugs his shoulders and changes the subject. It’s probably better that way.

Renjun has always thought that Donghyuck is somewhat strange, that something happens with him. That he’s not reliable. He doesn’t know what exactly, but he senses that not everything is completely fine with him. No one really sees Donghyuck arriving at his apartment and most nights he asks Renjun if he can stay at his house, with him. At first, he accepted somewhat annoyed. He has never liked the idea of sharing his personal space and an attractive boy with polka dots decorating his features did not seem to change Renjun's decision. However, he eventually did change his mind and perhaps he realized it when it was too late. Perhaps that was the core of the problem: he had trusted a lot and known very little.

Renjun doesn’t know him, not really. Donghyuck seems like an entity that comes and goes, with few words escaping his lips and more lies than anecdotes filling his whole story. He breathes irony and Renjun doubts every sentence that escaped from those lips that he devoured at night. Maybe that's why he liked him, that’s why he loved him. Mystery and riddles have always been his greatest passion. He remembered all the books they bought together; some fantasy and others didactic with a lot of riddles and puzzles embodied in the pages. Hours and hours staring at the television seemed to be a more than stipulated panorama during the long sunday afternoons and cups of red tea with raspberry muffins were the only source of food allowed in those days.

Once in his own apartment, Renjun puts his cellphone on the mattress and gets up from it to enter the bathroom where he gets rid of his clothes to go to the shower. He doesn’t cry, not again, not this time. He lets the water flow calmly through each pore of his skin, allowing himself to, somehow, rejuvenate again. He hasn't had a shower since the last time he spoke to Donghyuck and he thinks that maybe, just maybe, it’s time to do something about it and not just stay home like a dead person.

When Renjun is dressed again, he takes a couple of steps into the kitchen and closes the door behind him. There was no one else who could see him, however he decided to latch it and let his body relax against the door for a couple of seconds. He discards the red tea and muffins he still kept in the cupboard. He tossed the Italian food delivery brochures in the trash can and promised himself never to have a beer again. He has never liked the taste of it, but he pretended he did it because then Donghyuck would get angry, or that was how he interpreted his omission of words and his constant indifference to the boy. He didn’t know how long he had been in the kitchen, but when he left it, the sun had already set and the first stars were perfectly visible in the dark canvas that was beginning to cover him with its mantle.

Renjun has to go back to the kitchen to make sure he has turned off the gas and that the tea bags were still lying in the trash can to get back to the hall. He takes the photo album from the table and hugs it before crouching in front of the fireplace with a glass of red wine at his side. He exhales deeply and dials Donghyuck's number once again. There is no answer. By then, he is pretty sure he isn’t going to respond. Calls from his family keep popping up on his screen but he decides to ignore them. What was he going to hear? Regrets? Words of encouragement? Donghyuck’s family barely called for his birthday and Renjun didn't even remember that family saying their Donghyuck was important in their life so that they could have the slightest decency to show concern.

He shakes his head once, twice, three times before opening the photo album. He has done his best to put every picture, to put each one of them in the little album. Donghyuck used to keep everything messy, stored in a drawer. In Renjun’s eyes, the photos couldn't be appreciated that way and he wanted them to be seen. Why take pictures if they are not going to be shown? Renjun has taken the trouble of cutting each one out into a heart shape and pasting it on the red pages. He has written sentences that he remembered hearing in the odd romantic comedy movies they used to watch together or something they’ve read in a novel along the same lines. He looks at the first few photos for a moment before moving on to the next ones.

Unknown men on the pages, lips that belonged to him on strangers and a dead body in one of the corners of the room. Renjun sighes loudly, takes a one last look to Donghyuck, takes the album between his fingers and throws it into the fire.

**Author's Note:**

> And...that's all, I hope you liked this very short story! I'll try to do better in the future but I struggle from time to time because of the language. Thanks for reading and giving me a chance, though! xx


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